International Journal of Education and Development using ICT

International Journal of Education and Development using ICT > Vol. 8, No. 1 (2012)

Use of Mobile Phones for Project Based Learning by Undergraduate Students of Nigerian Private Universities

Samuel Chiedu Utulu, Redeemer's University (RUN), Ogun State, Nigeria
Ayodele John Alonge, KPMG Nigeria

Abstract
A university’s objective is to educate its students using information and communication technologies (ICTs) and teaching techniques that would enable its graduates become flexible and life-long learners that can easily adapt to the changes eminent in the information society. Achieving this aim requires among other factors, the adoption of appropriate teaching model such as the project based learning (PBL) which supports the inculcation of collaborative and lifelong learning skills, technology use skills, knowledge sharing skills and social networking skills into students. Consequently, this study was carried out to evaluate the use of mobile phones as knowledge sharing tools by students involved in PBL in three randomly selected private universities in Nigeria. The questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection from 532 undergraduates students distributed across the three selected private universities situated in the three of the six southwestern Nigerian states that were randomly selected. The population of three universities was estimated to be about 6000 students, that is, about 2000 students each. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 750 students that were in their second, third and fourth year in the universities and were presumed to have acquired required university curriculum experiences. This is to say that 250 students were sampled from each of the participating private universities. The result showed that a significant percentage of the students studied had mobile phones and that they used their mobile phones for communication, interactions, getting information, browsing the Internet, and sharing knowledge anytime they were involved in PBL. It was also revealed that mobiles phones can be used to strengthen PBL in higher institutions and can be used to implement information services provided for by university libraries. Although private universities in southwestern Nigeria amounts to about 43.9% of private universities in Nigeria, a percentage that make them a sizable representation of private universities in Nigeria, the fact that the study sampled population was drawn from only southwestern Nigerian that have its own peculiar mobile use readiness characteristics made generalizing the results of this study as the situation in Nigeria impossible.

Full Text: PDF

Research
Support Tool